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Holiday Happy

May 1, 2016

What kind of school holiday family are you…? Jam packed and fun filled, must-keep-little-bodies-busy days, quiet home days, or maybe you’re off to explore on a family adventure? Maybe you follow traditions and go on the same holiday every year?

While we like traditions, the comfort and familiarity of them, when it comes to adventures (and most things in our life) we enjoy shaking it up and trying something new 9 times out of 10. This is exactly what we did for the first term holiday. {First Term: In New Zealand the school year is made up of 4 equal terms and in between each term there is a 2 week break.} As the holiday approached we started to plan what we would do with the kids… would it be a week long road trip going south to explore the middle of the North Island… or would we make it 3 weeks and dive into the South Island also… then there were some nice Fiji specials that I had fun dreaming about…

When you have the need for adventure and exploration running through your veins sometimes it’s hard to see what is right at your doorstep. As we broke it down and asked ourselves what the kids would be most happy doing, the answer was easy and it dictated the last two weeks… and you know what, for the first time I don’t find myself needing a holiday from the school holiday.

We stayed home!! We stayed so local that we barely even got in our car. We soaked up cool clear mornings exploring Long Beach and the increasingly colder water. Tom and I enjoyed much peace as the kids explored their independence on school playgrounds. There was no time for TV, but we had a couple of movie-nights and FaceTime calls with Grandma. We had leisurely play dates, dinners with Mormor, short walks and a lovely sleepover at our house. We colored, read books and got into Lego building. Once we made the short trip over to Kawakawa to explore the local glow-worm caves, but the featured highlight was getting bicycles for all three and finally learning to ride – more on that slight oversight here!

So as I sit here on the couch at 8 o’clock, with my kids tucked up in bed all fast asleep from all the fresh air they have inhaled over the last two week, I am at peace. I feel deeply satisfied with the adventure that we didn’t take and the magic we experienced in just being grounded and present. Sometimes the simple experiences in life are just what you need.